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Be a Fast Cash Filler Writer With Help From the Public Domain

Disclaimer
All information is provided in good faith and is accurate to the best of our knowledge. This document is for information purposes only and does not impart legal or financial advice to readers who must consult their own legal and professional advisors before spending money or taking action of any kind based on operating a business such as outlined in this document. No part of this course can be copied by any means whatsoever in part or total without the express written permission of the copyright holder. It is the readers responsibility to ascertain and abide by local, national and international legal, moral and ethical issues regarding business set up and all other matters.

Foreword
If youve never heard of Five Minute Writing before, youre in for a big surprise. Thats because youre going to read about a very easy way to earn writing commissions or claim goods worth many thousands of pounds or dollars (or other country currency), sometimes much more, purely from committing ten or twenty or just a few hundred words to paper or computer. And that means, unlike many writers, you dont have to spends months or years writing a novel or non-fiction book to earn a good living as a writer. In fact, you could spend just five minutes writing an mimi-article or other short piece that makes you more money than most writers earn all week. This Five Minute Writing concept finds you working mainly for publishers of magazines and newspapers who need short pieces to fill gaps in their publications where the main feature on the page falls short of the available space. The even better news is you dont have to be a great writer or work very hard to earn a full time living writing short pieces and nor do you have to be particularly good at finding interesting ideas to write about. In fact all your writing and all your ideas can come from easily accessible sources of readymade ideas and information which you can pick up and use without making changes of any kind and you can still add your own name as author. Those sources are all in the public domain and they include the likes of articles and books, also photographs and recipes which you can copy in part or in total and never have to worry about breaching copyright rules. Thats because items in the public domain belong to no one and everyone can use them and make money from them without paying royalties or fees of any kind to their original creators. Ill tell you more about the public domain shortly and show you how to find literally millions of items that will generate ideas for your fillers and other creative pieces. But there is a problem here, namely that its very wrong for any writer to copy another peoples work too closely, even if that work is in the public domain. So if you want to become a well-paid writer you must only ever use another persons efforts as research material for your own writing and sometimes as references or accompaniments for your original work. Copying other peoples work too closely, even from the public domain, leaves both writer and publisher wide open to accusations of plagiarism, and breach of copyright if information used turns out not to be in the public domain. And that is not a good idea for anyone wanting to earn their living as a well-published writer. The threat of falling foul to accusations of plagiarism or breach of copyright means publishers are very careful to accept only unique information from their writers and not articles or photographs, or puzzles, or recipes that were written by other people.

The chance of innocently plagiarising another persons work is very high and thats why the writer should limit his or her research to creative works that belong to no one and can never lead to charges of foul play. Using works in the public domain means youll never be charged with breaching another persons copyright although plagiarism namely following another persons work too closely remains a distinct possibility and will win you no favours with publishers. And that is why youll never find professional writers using public domain items untouched unless to accompany a unique piece, such as a public domain photograph to accompany a unique article about a specific location or person. But theres nothing to stop you using public domain information for inspiration and research and very often it will provide all the information you need to create your own unique and well paid written or other creative piece without much work involved. The best way to approach works in the public domain is by rewriting or otherwise refashioning your borrowed information - or other creative work, such as puzzles and photographs - until eventually your finished work is entirely your own. And well worth a high fee to publishers worldwide. Before we look at the public domain as a source of ideas and inspiration for your fillers let me show you an easy way to conduct your own unique research without ever being accused of plagiarism or breach of copyright.

Doing Your Own Unique Research

Most writers research modern day publications for inspiration and ideas for their own creative pieces. And thats a good idea because modern day publications are targeted at the same people you will be writing for as well as providing information about the kind of subjects and writing style that interest modern day readers. Thats the reason modern publications should form the basis of the vast majority of your own research but it doesnt mean you have to buy those publications. Thats because youll find an immense motherload of highly informative and useful information online, on web sites, for example, and blogs, also at information sites like Wikipedia and similar. Some of this information is in the public domain, the majority is not, so as always you need to check you can copy and paste information into your research folders without breaching copyright laws. Most of that information youll find through search engines like Google, for example, where my search for information about Boxer Dogs, for example, for a mini-article I may want to write about the breed will today bring me to this:

Wikipedia, here, is one of the best sources of information about virtually any subject you want to write about. But as for all places for locating research material you must check the information is accurate and up-to-date.

The best way to do this is to locate research information from several sources and opt for information that is corroborated by at least three independent sites or publications. For what its worth I always begin my online research at Wikipedia. Continue reading to see how Googles own massive book depository can help you research modern newspapers and magazines, also books and other written texts, as well as others from hundreds of years ago and now in the public domain.

Introduction to the Public Domain

Typically public domain describes literary, musical, artistic and other creative works which are no longer protected by copyright, alongside others that never were subject to copyright. As such those items can be picked up and turned into valuable commercial products such as books, films, postcards, prints, calendars, and countless other high profit products, including for converting to fillers and other creative pieces for attracting high fees from modern day editors and publishers. Before we start our journey into learning more about the public domain and its profit generating potential, let me say I do not presume to offer legal advice, and you must take care not to breach rules relating to copyright and plagiarism. The following rules give a basic insight into when creative works fall into the public domain in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Public Domain USA

* Currently all items published in the USA before 1923 are in the public domain. * Work first published in the USA between 1923 and 1963 where their copyright was not renewed in their 28th year are in the public domain. * Works published in the USA between 1923 and 1978 without a legal copyright notice are in the public domain. * Works first published in the USA after January 1st 1978 retain copyright for the life of the author and seventy years thereafter, bearing close similarity to UK laws.

Public Domain UK
Items first published in the United Kingdom currently fall into the public domain 70 years after the death of the creator or last surviving joint creator of a creative work. The 70 year rule starts at the end of the year in which the creator or last surviving creator dies, meaning if the creator died in 1920 the 70 years begin on January 1st 1921. The public domain varies between countries and you must make sure you comply with the rules relating to which country you work in and where in the world your public domain based work might be published. Heres an excellent place to start looking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain

Important Facts About the Public Domain

* Works published before copyright laws existed are in the public domain. * Specific legal rules govern the public domain for writers using pen names or who write anonymously. But without knowing the writers original name, how do you research the time of his or her death, and how do you determine when the work falls into the public domain? The U.S. Copyright Office has the answer in relation to works created after January 1st, 1978. Note this is for U.S. copyright, about which they say: For an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first. For works first published prior to 1978, the term will vary depending on several factors. * It is the year and country of first publication, not the year of writing the book that determines whether an item is in the public domain. Lets describe this with reference to Houdini, arguably the worlds greatest ever magician, and also a very prolific and extremely talented writer. Houdini wrote extensively about his own and other peoples magic tricks and many of his books have been converted from the public domain for sale on eBay and elsewhere. Houdini died in 1926, and according to U.S. public domain laws those of his books published in the USA before 1923 are now in the public domain. This means you can take any original copy of a book written by Harry Houdini published in the USA in 1922 or earlier and reformat and distribute it any way you like and charge whatever you fancy as long as you abide by rules covering sales outside the USA. * Different media types (books, films, government documents) are sometimes governed by varying rules regarding copyright terms and when an item falls into the public domain. * Just because you own the original work, such as a painting or original hand written final draft of a book or piece of music, this does not necessarily mean you also own copyright in the item. Nor does it mean you can make and sell copies of the original in your possession. For example, on television a short while ago an artist explained that he had sold his own original painting from which he earned large sums of money from limited edition signed prints. Asked why he sold the painting and, by implication also the reprint rights, he insisted he had only sold the painting, he had not sold his intellectual copyright in the item. Someone else has the painting, he said, but as artist he still holds the copyright and subsequent rights to market copies of his work. His claims were verified by the production companys legal team.

* Public domain is not the same as out of print. Out of print means the publisher has ceased creating new copies of a book or other item, even though the item may still be fully protected by copyright law and remain so for many years to come.

Items That Are Almost Always in the Public Domain and Not Eligible for Copyright Protection
Some items are unlikely ever to be covered by copyright and will rarely invite legal problems even for copies of quite recent creations. They include: * Recipes but the words used to describe preparation and cooking methods can be copyright protected. The list of ingredients and methodology are unlikely to be copyright * Scientific principles, mathematical formulae * Ideas * Titles - such as book titles, but trademarks may be copyright protected in a title * Facts, written or unwritten * Words in or not in the dictionary, except for trademarks and similar protections * Data, patterns, instructions that have not been written down or otherwise recorded * Most government documents.

Items That Are Eligible for Copyright Protection

All items eligible for copyright must possess three main characteristics. They must be: * Fixed * Original * Creative Fixed means the item must be visible or tangible, and not a mere concept or thought. Examples of fixed items include written or typed pages, digital products, web pages, paintings, pictures, photographs, sheet music, songs with words committed to paper, maps, films.

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A book, song, or picture that exists purely in the creators mind is rarely copyright protected, although some unfixed creations have been legally described as copyright protected, such as ideas communicated to others by speech, singing, or hand gestures. Original means the item owes its entire existence to its creator. So a book of which every word comes from the thoughts and ideas of the claimed author or authors is original and copyright protected when committed to paper, CD or other tangible format. Creative means the work must involve specific creative skills such as writing and drawing ability, photographic skills, and so on.

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Sourcing Products From The Public Domain

In practice, you only need one good product to grow a full-time, hugely profitable business, and you dont have to work hard to find it. But you do have to be picky and you must take time choosing your product, you must also apply ideas and creativity to set your revised product apart from anything anyone else could easily be selling. Heres a brief rundown of better known sources of items in the public domain: * Public Domain Libraries, many online and freely accessible including Googles Book depository and Gutenberg.org and others youll find by keying books + public + domain and similar into your favourite search engine. * Second-hand and Antique Shops * Book Shops, Antiquarian and Used * Jumble Sales, Flea Markets, Collectors Fairs * eBay.com and other country sites * Book Search operators on and off the Internet * Major Libraries * Works placed in the public domain by their creators * Government offices and official archives

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Why Googles Book Site is the Best and Easiest Place t o Find Magazines, Newspapers and Other Publications From Modern and Earlier Times
Naturally youre not always going to create fillers based purely on information from the public domain and most of your writing time will probably be spent fashioning your own unique and original fillers. So you may research your work in modern day newspapers and books, by talking to people or watching television. However, theres a web site I want to tell you about which is not only good for finding information from the public domain but which is also excellent for sourcing modern research material. And I am sure, if you write fillers from now to eternity, youll never run out of research material where you pay regular visits to Googles Book depository. The kind of publications well be looking for at Googles site are: * Modern Day Magazines, Newspapers and Other Creative Forms * Older Magazines, Newspapers and Other Creative Forms from the Public Domain Let me show you how Google can provide all the research material youre ever likely to need.

Online and Offline Modern Day Magazines, Newspapers and Other Creative Forms
Modern day magazines can be researched in full at your local newsagents or in libraries, or in complete or partial format from magazines published wholly or partly online. One of the best places to locate information from publications published on the Internet and sometimes published offline is at Googles massive book depository at: http://www.books.google.com where today youll find this:

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Lets say I want to write a filler or a selection of fillers about collecting topographical postcards which youll see I have asked Google to search for and which brings me to this:

Notice about 1,980 results have been returned, all with some connection to collecting topographical postcards and providing lots of information for whatever filler or fillers I may create. At the left side of the screen youll see I can to search magazines about collecting topographic postcards and exclude books.

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I can also key dates into the Custom range to locate magazines published in the last few years to ensure my filler is as up-to-date as possible. Or I can narrow my search further to provide information about items that are in the public domain. Rules relating to what is in the public domain and what is firmly copyright protected vary by country and you must be careful to follow the rules very carefully when choosing information to use in your fillers or you could be charged with breach of copyright. As an example, anything published in the United States before 1923 is firmly in the public domain and will attract no legal problems if copied. That means I can find information thats one hundred per cent in the public domain on Googles book site by keying 1922 (items should be published before 1923) into the bottom box at Custom range. You can see how its done from the next illustration for a write up about Knoxville in Tennessee to accompany bail bonds from the 1700s which I bought recently at a local flea market and which I think may interest readers in Knoxville today.

Ive keyed the last day of 1922 in here to ensure Google returns documents before 1923 and therefore in the public domain. I have to add a date to the top box so I have arbitrarily opted for 1700 to coincide with the century during which my bail bonds were issued. Then I click to search which brings me to this:

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Im told there are 417,000 results available for me to use, but in reality the most suitable and most relevant will be shown earliest in search engine returns. Inside the listing I can choose to locate specific mentions in my case to a gentleman called Charles McClung who signed the bail bonds and was also the founder of Knoxville. For the second listing in the above illustration Im taken to this:

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Making sure my search term, in this case Charles McClung is in the search box I click on Search and Im presented with various mentions of Mr. McClung, like this:

Can you see how just a few minutes work has already provided more than enough information for me to write a well paid filler or maybe several and submit them to editors and publishers in the Knoxville area? IMPORTANT: You might consider using information from the public domain unchanged for web sites and books and reports you want to sell direct to readers but you must never use it in articles and other creative works you will be submitting to editors and publishers. Public domain information is purely for research purposes as far as fee earning five minute writers are concerned. However you approach the search for information at Google Books you cant possibly run out of ideas for writing fillers. Now let us look at a handful of really easy ways for using the public domain as the basis of your new filler writing career.

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Easy Filler Writing Technique Combining Images and T ext From the Public Domain
One of the easiest ways to create a filler that local newspapers will love is by combining two items from the public domain, in this example a real photographic postcard and a book about days out in and around the Darlington area. Darlington is in Country Durham and High Force is a popular tourist destination in and around the Darlington area. There are two reasons combining two items this way from the public domain is such a good idea for filler writers, being the chance to interest more readers of your target magazines, some liking to see their locality in vintage images, others preferring to read about the area. The other reason is the fact that both items in the public domain are accessible to all people, but theres little chance of any other writer locating and using both items in a filler and robbing your of your market. The photograph is from the very early 1900s and the book The Darlington Saturday Half Holiday Guide was published in 1882. And that means both are firmly in the public domain. Heres the photograph:

Heres a page in the book referring to the subject of the photograph, High Force:

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You can pretty much use all the information from the few pages referring to High Force but that would give you a long filler or perhaps a full-blown article. Your work might also look very stale, mainly because writers from many decades ago adopted a very different writing style to writers today and used words that are no longer in modern usage. And that means without rewriting your text from the public domain youre unlikely to find a publisher willing to pay for it. But you must be very careful to reword all of your public domain information because publishers today can search for plagiarised text by keying short snippets of text into Google and other search engines, including a number of sites specifically geared to searching for duplicate content on and off the Internet. If that happens your publisher may see you as a plagiarist and avoid buying from you in future. So you must reword the text from vintage public domain documents, except for quotes, for example, and passages taken directly from the text which are essential to your filler and are surrounded by quote marks. But there is a problem regarding the photograph and book Ive just found from the public domain and want to use in my filler about the Darlington area. The problem is that most of the information about High Force in the book I have is common knowledge today and that makes it unsuitable for filler writers. The fact is anyone can very easily locate the same information, including house writers of your target publication, and its unlikely your fillers will ever be unique or even different. And unique or very different is what fillers need to be to attract an editors or publishers attention and convince them to publish and pay for your work.

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So you need to scour your text for interesting snippets which are not easily found on or off the Internet. You do that by reading the text and looking for interesting facts about the subject of your filler and then you search on Google or other search engine for similar information. If you find little or no information about the subject, youre onto a winner and you should reword the information and send it with your illustrations to your target editor or publisher. Heres a bit of really interesting information I found about High Force in The Darlington Saturday Half Holiday Guide:

That tells me a structure called the Wynch Bridge was the scene of a tragic accident in 1802 when the bridge broke with nine men and two women standing upon it, and one of the those people was killed. Look a little closer down the same article and theres mention of another tragic event, here called a melancholy accident notice that melancholy is not a term thats used much today and would be inappropriate in a modern day filler. But already in two short paragraphs Ive learned about two accidents occurring in and around the High Force area more than two hundred years ago. So I could write a short article, with images, focussing on locations where accidents took place in Victorian and earlier times and inviting readers to comment about people in those accidents or subsequent tragedies at the same locations.

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Featuring a call for other readers to comment on your work is highly popular with editors and publishers pay highly for purely because they get other readers into writing mode and help fill more pages without having to pay! So one paid-for filler covering seven or eight square inches can result in enough unpaid submissions over several issues and cut overheads significantly for editors and publishers. Let me show you another item, a piece of ephemera this time relating to a man called Isaac Cooper who in 1902 saved two girls from drowning in the sea at Marske near Redcar. The image is spectacular and its quite rare even though it cost me just a few pennies at a local flea market. Its old and in the public domain and the reason I bought it was to write a short filler about the brave event. I wrote the filler in 2002 - the one hundredth anniversary of the near drowning - it was published in a newspaper in the Redcar area and with the image it earned me thirty-five pounds. Not bad for a few minutes work.

So the idea here is too look out for public domain items with dates and featuring events that people may interest people today. But there has to be something recognisable about the event, such as big differences to how a particular location looks today, a visit by an important person to the area, or the view is from a time that was once very peaceful and which has recently suffered a horrendous widescale tragedy, and so on.

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In general, you wont get paid for fillers and images focussing on everyday events regardless of how long ago they took place. So a man weeding his garden in 1889 and a woman pushing her pram a year later are not likely to win favour with editors and publishers, unless those people are famous of course! But something like this should do very nicely indeed:

The illustration is of Market Place in Frome and because I no longer have the postcard I cant recall its exact date. But I know it was postally used in the early 1900s, between 1900 and 1906 and it accompanied a short filler I wrote about Market Place in Frome and events that took place in the street in the 100 years since that postcard was published. And thats another time when searching carefully for dated images and publications known to be in the public domain can very easily form the basis of an anniversary related filler. Personally I have always found fillers based on anniversaries to be the most popular with publishers and likely to earn much higher fees than most other filler types. And the even better new is, once youre finished with your postcard or photograph, books or ephemera, you can sell them on eBay sometimes at much higher prices than you paid for them.

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Creating Recipes From the Public Domain

Now let me introduce you to a very easy way to make money writing fillers with the help of the public domain where your fillers will not only be unique and require very little editing but will also include fascinating background material that makes your work unsurpassable to editors and publishers. Im talking here about recipes which are very popular fillers in almost all womens magazines and the ladies pages of most daily newspapers. Recipes are not subject to copyright and are invariably in the public domain. The contents and method of creating a dish is not copyright protected and can usually be picked up and copied at will. However the manner of describing the contents and the method of preparing and creating the dish are copyright protected and can not be copied. But recipes from long ago are an altogether different matter and you can pick up and copy them at will. Two things to ensure here are: i) You should check that ingredients used many years ago are still available today and that they do not contravene current thinking about good health and ethics. So a recipe you find based on larks tongues will alienate todays publishers, who also wont want to show their readers how to create dishes including copious amounts of fat and other fattening and healththreatening substances. Recipes you want to use as fillers which are not acceptable for diners today should be clearly pointed out as unsuitable and more for information than actual use. ii) You should always try out the recipe yourself to make sure it works and to create an illustration for your target publication. But theres another easy way to make your fillers totally enthralling for publishers, and that is to include interesting background material that makes your filler more than just a recipe. You do it by looking for famous people and places, or anniversaries relating to recipes you take from the public domain, such as the following, for example, which I found in a huge book of recipes glued into an album and which cost me more than one hundred pounds. But Ive earn much more than one hundred pounds from fillers created from recipes included in the album as well as from eventually reselling the album on eBay. Let these images show you what is involved:

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Those recipes are interesting in their own right but notice theyre on letterheads from Christ Church in Oxford and Longlands at Holkham in Norfolk. Theyre dated 1896 and theyre firmly in the public domain, as is the wording used to explain the preparation and cooking process. So theyre old, and may feature recipes that have been forgotten in the passage of time, but more importantly they feature locations that have local topographical appeal. So recipe and topographical location combined make these recipes doubly interesting to publishers, especially in their topographical location. Let me give you see two more pages of more than two hundred pages packed with recipes where every single entry can form the basis of a highly paid filler.

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Creating Verses for Greetings Cards from The Public Domain

Verses should always be unique as must all items you submit for publication and payment. But theres nothing to stop you using greetings cards and books of verse from the public domain as inspiration for your verses. Youll find many excellent cards and books containing verses in the public domain at car boot sales and flea markets, like this booklet of verses I bought the other day which includes ten Victorian verses which are a bit old-fashioned but could easily be updated and converted to suit people today.

Personally I only ever use the last word on any line of verse, the ones that rhyme, as ideas for my own greetings card verses but occasionally I have found really unusual cards that spark an entirely original idea for a new verse of my own.

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And now you know all about the public domain and how to use it as a never-ending source of research for well paid fillers for many years to come.